Tuesday, January 22, 2013

The Fourth Season of Ireland

Sometimes, when people ask, why I moved to Ireland, I say "because of the weather". It's a good icebreaker. Haven't met any Irish local yet, who isn't aware that the rest of the the world sees these closely located two island nations, England and Ireland, as the lands of constant rain. Sometimes, when folks back home ask about the weather, I explain that it's like a karaoke bar. If you don't like it, next one is up in fifteen minutes. Although I haven't been to a karaoke bar, where the shortest available song is the Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin.

What people don't realise is that Ireland has four seasons: spring, summer, fall and winter. Summer is usually fifteen minutes long between the short bursts of rain (or fog as it is sometimes referred as) and it lasts about the whole year. And then there's the winter.

This year, winter started yesterday, at about 9 am, with a long-waited snow pouring all-over the country.

And it lasted until 12 pm. I believe this was expected. Local media started to hyperbole the upcoming blizzard storm, that will destroy all living things, sometimes very close to november. Illustration used, was usually pictures taken from Antarctica and photoshopped with people freezing dead.

Also in the breaking news: England and Ireland were officially closed and put in to quarantine for the whole time. Here's a short caption of the news feed: this one from BBC. Dublin Bus gave out information of those bus lines that would still be going if anything fails. Basically the buses still followed the same distinctive routine of Zen, that keeps them running regardless of the weather. They just drove around laughing at the timetables.

After three hours of unsustainable living conditions, the winter was officially over, and the head smurf Enda Kenny pronounced, that there will be ice-cream for everyone.

Now that the winter is long past, we all can start enjoying the spring. There will probably be some rains joining us tomorrow.